Plot

Beck was a mechanic who worked at Able'sgarage with his friends Bodhi, Zed, and Mara. He enjoyed his job, but not as much as the disc games he and his friends played on their time off.

As the group of friends enjoyed some recreational time together in a friendly disc game, a military battalion led by General Tesler arrived and took over their playing field. Tesler informed the people of Argon City that the city was now under occupation. When a giant statue of Clu was dropped in the center of the game field, Bodhi protested, and, to Beck’s horror, was derezzed by a guard. Deciding to fight back against the Occupation, Beck used Bodhi's recoding tool on his disc, modifying his light suit to look similar to Tron's. He then scaled the statue, removed its head, and dropped a light grenade inside the hollow frame to destroy it.

A guard reported the statue’s destruction to Tesler, along with the observation that the culprit looked like Tron. Clu entered and denied this claim, saying that Tron was dead. Tesler responded by sending his second-in-command, Paige, to find the masked renegade.

Beck dispatched two of the Black Guard that pursued him after the statue’s destruction, but was confronted by Paige, resulting in a protracted fight. Boarding a light copter, Beck overpowered its pilot, but damaged the flight controls in the process and was forced to abandon the craft to Paige and bail out over the Outlands.

Repairing an abandoned light crawler, Beck headed for home, but found himself pursued by a masked program with red circuits. Unable to escape, he was soon overpowered. Awakening from a stun charge, he found himself bound hand and foot in a large chamber; his captor, still masked, approached to interrogate him. The program challenged Beck's activities; Beck was defiant, assuming that his captor was loyal to Clu, and secretly started using the recoder to disable his bindings. Once free, he grabbed his disc and lunged at the stranger, who had been anticipating this and easily dodged Beck’s attack. Their verbal exchange continued throughout the fight, and when Beck expressed determination to fight Clu no matter what it took, the stranger unmasked and revealed himself to be Tron, saying that Beck was right about one thing: “I’m not dead.”

Tron explained how he was programmed to defend the Grid, and how he was betrayed by Clu. He showed Beck the horrific injuries preventing him from taking back the Grid, and tried to convince Beck to join him and become the next Tron in a fight against the Occupation; but Beck, faced with the Grid's legendary hero, was consumed with self-doubt. Despite Tron's entreaties, Beck declined the offer and returned to Argon City.

Back the garage, Beck headed downstairs and was greeted by Paige and a troop of guards, who confronted the garage workers with a recording of the Renegade's activities. Paige informed them that Tesler was bringing the Games to Argon and that until the imposter was turned in, “volunteers" would be rounded up to compete.

Beck and his friends discussed the Renegade the next day at work; Mara approved of the masked program's activities, but Zed believed sedition would just cause trouble. Able pulled Beck aside momentarily to warn him against making waves under the new, dangerous conditions, but when they stepped out of Able's office they were horrified to see Tesler already rounding up programs -- Zed and Mara among them -- for the Games. Despite Able's warning, Beck secretly donned his Tron disguise again and pursued the light rail transporting his captive friends to the Coliseum. Jumping onto the train, he encountered a Black Guard, who viciously defended the train. Beck gained the upper hand and appeared ready to derez the Guardsman, but instead detached the last car from the train and was left behind with it, leaving the rapidly disappearing soldier confused at why he was spared. The car Beck detached turned out to be empty, and he activated his lightcycle to chase the train again; getting ahead of it, he broke the light beam's supports and caused the train to crash. The Black Guard took him by surprise as he searched the fallen cars for his friends, but remembered how Beck had spared him, he showed him to the right car instead of capturing him. The two programs freed the prisoners and watched them escape. However, General Tesler arrived, derezzed the Guard for aiding the Renegade, and attacked Beck with his enhanced extendable gauntlets, telling him that he'd never be able to save everybody. During the fight, Beck was able to cut off Tesler's gauntlets, causing him to fall into a light rail beam; the furious general, carried off at high speed, was eventually rescued by Paige.

Beck returned to Tron’s hideout in the Outlands and announced himself ready to undergo training to become the next Tron. Tron proclaimed that he wasn’t ready, but he would be. Tron then removed his identity disc and separated it into two halves, exchanging one for half of Beck's disc. Beck combined the white half of Tron's disc with his black half and puts the combined disc on; Tron did the same, his light suit turning black as Beck's had been, while Beck now acquired the white outfit Tron had worn in the old days. Beck's new mentor sealed the exchange with the words, “Come, we have a lot of work to do... Tron.”